Trib Live is the website for
my local newspaper. On April 17, 2020 was an article about churches reopening in “phase one” of the
Coronavirus task force’s three phase reopening plan. I commented, “This is so good to hear.”
Someone responded to my comment by saying “Tell your god to come down here and
stop this virus.” My response to that comment would be too long to post there,
so let me do so here.

Wet Markets:

There are two theories
as to how this Coronavirus (CV) pandemic began. The first is that it came from
“wet markets” in Wuhan province in China via people eating bats. Biblically,
bats are an unclean animal that should not be eaten (Leviticus 11:19).

At these wet markets,
animal carcasses are piled up to be sold, and they are handled like any other
kind of merchandise, with no regard for sanitary practices. The Bible teaches
that extreme care must be taken when handling animal carcasses (and human
bodies) and that a person is “unclean” after touching just one such carcass or
body. The person is then unclean until he or she is purified (Leviticus
11:24-28. Numbers 19:11f).

As a result of
these unsanitary conditions, these wet markets have been the source for
contagions previously. The Chinese Communist Party (CPP) promised to shut them
down, but it never did.

Viral Lab:

The other theory is the
CV came from a viral research lab in Wuhan. A worker was infected, left the lab
and infected people in those wet markets. Then when the disease spread in that
province, the CPP did not lock it down. But instead, those infected people were
allowed to travel outside of that province into the rest of China and ultimately
into the rest of the world.

The Bible teaches that
if there is a possible contagion, it needs to be carefully investigated. If
people are found who are infected with an infectious disease, they should be
quarantined (Leviticus 13-14).

Watchmen and Lies:

When the CCP realized
they had a problem on their hands that could potentially affect millions, they
did not warn anyone about it. They instead tried to hide it as long as possible.
Then even told lies about it, saying there was no human to human transmission
long after they knew there was such transmission. And the CCP is
continuing to lie to this day. The numbers coming out of China as to the number
of CV cases and deaths are very obviously way off by orders of magnitude.

The Bible teaches that
a nation should have a “watchman” who warms the people about impending dangers.
But if that watchman does not do so, the blood of those who die will be on his
hands (Ezekiel 33:1-6). But the CCP shut up its watchmen, imprisoned them, and
ultimately killed them, keeping them from doing their Biblical job of warning the rest of
us about the impending danger. The Bible also teaches
that lying is a sin (1Timothy 1:10-12; Revelation 21:8,27, 22:15), but the CCP
has been doing that in droves.

Counselors:

The United States offered to send out health experts to China to help them
investigate and control the virus. But the CCP refused, saying they could figure
it out on their own. They couldn’t, and much harm resulted. The Bible teaches, “Where there is no counsel, the people
fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 NKJV;
also Proverbs 15:22; 24:6).

Learning from This Pandemic:

Putting this all together, the
reason we are dealing with this pandemic is due to us the CCP disobeying God’s
explicit commands in multiple ways. As such, if God come down here and
miraculously delivered us from the results of such disobedience, we would never
learn from it. The CCP would be left to continue with its dangerous ways. But
now, there will be (or at least there better be) repercussions for the CCP, so
that future such dangers from their disobedience can be avoided.

Moreover, maybe now
people will think twice about eating Biblically unclean foods, and maybe they
will realize the need for sanitary conditions when handling animal carcasses. In
addition, hopefully researchers will take better precautions to keep dangerous
viruses from leaking from their labs and will quarantine anyone who is infected
by them.

In addition, the Bible
teaches God blesses nations that obey His commanded, while those that disobey
Him are under a curse (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). Among those curses are
plagues, just like the one we are experiencing. Again, it came upon us due to
the CCP not obeying God’s commands.

The point is, we will
grow and learn from this experience. The biggest thing we will learn is that God
knows what He is talking about, so we should take the Bible and its commands
seriously.

Mad Cow Disease:

An objection has been
raised to the reasoning in the first part of this article, that being my insinuation that eating
Biblically unclean animals can lead to disease. The corollary to this is that
eating clean animals do not cause disease. But what about mad cow disease? It is
caused by eating cows, which are a clean animal. For that matter, heart disease
and cancer can be caused by eating red meat.

To respond, yes cows
are clean animals. But God created cows to live in a pasture feeding on grasses.
This is seen in that the Bible always associates cattle and sheep with pastures
and hills (Gen 47:4; 1Chr 4:39-41; Psalm 50:10; Isaiah 5:17; Jeremiah 6:3;
Ezekiel 34:12-18; Joel 1:18).

However, in factory
farms today, cows are kept inside in pens and are fed grains and other
foodstuff, an unnatural diet for them. That is why their meat is unhealthy to
eat, as the cows are not being raised in God’s prescribed manner. But if they
are raised in the Biblical manner, their meat is perfectly healthy to eat.

As for mad cow disease,
it is caused by feeding cow parts, especially cow brains, to other cows. That is
about as unnatural of a diet as you can get, as God did not create cows as
carnivores, let alone as cannibals.

For much more in this
regard, see my book
Creationist Diet: Second Edition. It discusses the
incredible difference between factory farm animal foods and what I call
“old-fashioned animal foods.” By the latter I mean animal foods derived from
animals raised in the old-fashioned and God-prescribed manner.

Sin Always Affects Others:

Another
possible objection
to this article is that since it was the CCP that sinned, God should only
punish them with this plague, not the rest of us. The answer to that is sin
always affects far more people than just the person who sinned.

Take adultery, for
instance. The Bible clearly teaches it is a sin (Exodus 20:14). But when someone
disobeys that clear command, it hurts not just that person but many others. If a
man cheats on his wife with another woman, he hurts not just himself, but his
wife, his children, and very possibly his relationship with his own parents,
his wife’s parents, and others in the extended family. If the woman he sinned
with was married, then the same would apply with her family, starting with her
husband.

The point is; sin
always reverberates far beyond just the person or in this case group of people
that sins. This is not to say God “punishes” those other people. It is just that
certain behaviors are detrimental by their very nature to not just the person
who engages in them but also to others. God warns us what those behaviors are
and calls them sin. That is why the Bible speaks so strongly against such
behaviors and warns us that much harm will come if we do sin. Again, see
Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28.

Caveats:

In this short article,
I have been careful to single out the CCP as opposed the Chinese people at
large. The latter are just as much victims as the rest of us are due to the
disobedience of the CCP, even more so, as they still have to live under that
totalitarian regime.

Also, the World Health
Organization (WHO) helped to promulgate the lies of the CCP. As such, they are
just as culpable as the CCP for this pandemic. As such, there should also be
repercussions for them. Spreading a lie is also forbidden in the Bible (Col
3:9).

Conclusion:

Bottom line is, don’t
blame God for the CV pandemic. Blame the CCP for disobeying God. And if God were
to miraculously deliver us, we would learn nothing from this experience, except
to expect Him to do so again. And we would all continue in our sinful ways.

But as it is, many will
turn to the LORD and learn to trust Him and his Word for direction in life. And
those of us who already have such trust can go through not just this but all
tragedies in life with the knowledge that
The LORD Has It Under Control, as the
title of one of my books puts it.

The United
States of American is being torn about by political differences more than any
time since the 1960s and maybe since the Civil War of the 1860s. This division
was amplified by political events in the summer to fall of 2018. This time
period could prove to be seminal in the history of the United States. This
tearing apart came to the forefront and was amplified during the confirmation
proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. This book overviews
the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings in detail. It then overviews these
additional major events that occurred up to the end of November 2018.

The above article was posted on
this website April, 23, 2020.
It was updated April 26, 2020.